blue tick, noun phrase

Origin:
So called for the colouration of the unengorged female tick.
Any of several ticks of the genus Boophilus of the Ixodidae (especially B. decoloratus), which transmit redwater (sense 1), gallsickness (sense 1 a), and spirochaetosis, especially among cattle.
1886 F.R. Schauble in E.A. Ormerod Notes & Descr. of Injurious Farm & Fruit Insects (1889) The common huge Blue Tick.
1911 Farmer’s Weekly 22 Mar. 22Whilst at Graaff-Reinet Show, he picked four ticks off one of the prize animals...The fourth was the blue tick, which carries redwater.
1918 S.H. Skaife Animal Life in S. Afr. 180The blue tick..is one of the commonest of our ticks. It is also of great importance, as it spreads redwater fever and gallsickness among cattle.
1937 Handbk for Farmers (Dept of Agric. & Forestry) 515One-host Ticks...To this group belongs the blue tick (Boophilus decoloratus).
1978 Daily Dispatch 16 Aug. (Agric. Review) 16The blue tick is the main transmitting agent for anaplasmosis and redwater.
1989 J. du P. Bothma Game Ranch Management 196In the case of one-host ticks, such as the blue tick, the larva moults on the host into a nymph, re-attaches onto the same host and engorges.
1991 J.B. Walker in Onderstepoort Jrnl of Vet. Research Vol.58 No.2, 85Genus Boophilus,..Members of this small, but economically important, genus are commonly known as blue ticks...The common blue tick, Boophilus decoloratus, is the species that is most frequently implicated in the transmission of 3 cattle parasites:..also, Anaplasma marginale and A. centrale, causing gallsickness.
Any of several ticks of the genus Boophilus of the Ixodidae (especially B. decoloratus), which transmit redwater (sense 1), gallsickness (sense 1 a), and spirochaetosis, especially among cattle.
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18861991

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